Heinen Contracting Inc

In the Fall of 2015, Heinen Contracting,Inc tore out an old retaining wall and stairs in the back of my apartment building. This entire project involved removing a retaining wall, concrete stairs, and 4' to 6’ of dirt that was contained by said wall, roughly an area 18’ x 30’.  He was then to rebuild a retaining wall 5’ off the back of the building, sink 4'x4' fence posts, and install stairs up to the back door, including three poured concrete slab platforms. I paid a total of $21,000.00 to Greg Heinen. Heinen Contracting warranty is worthless. The stairway has required "maintenance" every year since installed and he refuses to make good on his written 10 year warranty. The stairs are uneven due to sinkage and crumbling. The poured concrete platform has sunk and now drains towards my building. He has told me to take him to court and "prove" the damage is not related to the application of salt. I paid Greg a lot of money for what has become "my" problem (I can sent you a ton of pictures) Here's my saga... I had first expressed concern to Greg when the block was delivered because they did not have the traditional “lip” or edging as seen on landscape wall block. My understanding was that this lip helped the block stay in position during expansion and contraction of whatever was being “retained”. The block that Greg delivered was a cinder block with a rock face, typically installed with mortar. He assured me HE had developed a system that integrated landscaping fabric, instead of mortar or a lip, that would do the same job. HE also said he had agreed to warranty his product for 10 years. So, I should feel comfortable in relying on his expertise. He showed me pictures of a similar and much bigger staircase and wall he had done using this system and said he had good results. Since he had already tore out the back steps, I felt obligated to continue.   In the Spring of 2016, the blocks used to build the stairs had settled unevenly (beyond the 1/2" margin as stated in HIS warranty contract). After many phone conversations, texting and pictures, he eventually returned after dark in the fall of 2016 to level up the stairs. In the Spring of 2017, several more blocks had sunk during the second winter. I contacted Greg again and expressed concern but he assured me settling was natural and would eventually stop. After numerous "reminder calls", texting and photos, he did fix the uneven stairs again. In the Spring of 2018, again, three more block had shifted (beyond the 1/2" margin as stated in HIS 10 year warranty). At this time I had expressed a lack of satisfaction in these STAIRS as they are requiring ANNUAL MAINTENANCE and he assured me that after this initial settling the stairs would be stable. He did not come out at anytime during the 2018 season. I contacted him often but he was too busy. By the Spring of 2019 not only had more blocks “settled” but also many of the blocks began spidering and crumbling. I expressed to Greg my dissatisfaction that these stairs were requiring annual maintenance and now were literally falling apart. I questioned HIS design and use of normal block. Stating that stairs should not require annual maintenance, insisting upon a more permanent solution. As soon as he realized this meant more than a 3 hour repair, he got nasty and said I’ll have to take him to court and prove the problems were NOT due to use of salt in the winter. I would like Greg to stand by HIS design and HIS choice of materials and fix these stairs. I am very disappointed that he refuses to accept responsibility for HIS work.

Working with Heinen Garage Construction was a great experience. They tore down our old garage and built us a new 22x24. They were great communicators through the process and we are so pleased with our new garage!

Greg built a garage for me 6-7 years ago. He didn't correctly grade the site and he built it way too low. Every spring and winter my garage floods and gets about 50% taken over by water or ice up to 1" thick. I've contacted him multiple times to no avail. It's dangerous to walk in during the winter with the ice and the only way to melt it is to dump salt inside the garage. I contacted him in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017 to no avail. Take your money elsewhere. I have an email chain of over 30 emails with him and it's not fixed. Last time I contacted him he didn't respond.

It was adequate service and quality.

I'll make this short, but could write a novel. From the start he was great to work with, then once work began dates kept getting pushed and pushed. the wrong garage door was installed, I had a garage door opener installed that I didn't ask for (but am glad it's there now), the service door was the wrong swing, the apron had to be redone due to being the wrong size and it didn't have a slope to it. I heard over and over that he was just the messenger to relay the information to his sub-contractors. the project was completed one month after the 'promised' completion date. Once the project was comlete I have to say that I'm happy with the finished product, just the process was VERY frustrating. That's the short version...take it for what you will.

This was the second time I worked with Greg. It had gone so well the first time that I called him when I wanted a 14 x 20 building put on the back of my lot. He impressed me again with his creative solutions to some of the problems I was having, both with build and placement. He stayed in my budget and got it done in a reasonable amount of time. Definitely will call him again for the next project!

Great. Work was done on time and within budget. My garage has lasted well for the last year. Greg came back when I called him about an issue with the door. Fixed same day. Super company to work with.

Greg was easy to work with, got done on time and did a nice Job, I would for sure work with him again on a future project

Awesome Very Impressed with the quality of workmanship. I will recommend them to anyone Great Job Greg. Very professional, Was built on time and on budget.

We started in the spring. Greg came out to assess my falling apart garage. He tore down the old garage and replaced it. As it is an attached garage, it was quite a process. Everything went very well. There were some delays due to weather, but that is understandable. Overall, I am thrilled with my new garage and so happy that Greg was also able to redo the sidewalk and steps to my front door. The work is holding up beautifully and Greg and his crews were great to work with.

Estimate, crew, and project professionally executed within time frame quoted. Photos presented of other completed projects were helpful. Finish work is top notch. Just contacted this company for another project slated for later this year. Looking forward to working with them again. <br />

They did a great job and I would highly recommend them for your contractor.  They charged us exactly what they quoted us and gave us superior products. <br />

unknown

First question I asked was the first lie Greg told. When asked if the work was done in house with the use of no subcontractors as his company name leads me to believe that he contracts work and I did not want that. His answer was everything is taken care of in house. He subcontracted out almost everything except for the concrete installation. What is scary is he was not the lowest bid. Please, note that Greg will dispute EVERYTHING I say below with all kinds of excuses of why this or that happened but with more than 20 years of experience there should be a lot less mistakes, excuses, and more fixes when his subcontractors/employees mess up instead of disputing everything. Had I not noticed the errors they would have gone unchecked and probably has done several people wrong over the years with substandard work only because they don’t know better. I am still to this day(3/30/16) still finding and fixing errors. I 100% DO NOT recommend Heinen Contracting if you want it right done the first time and on time. I very highly recommend using someone else if you have no clue about general building and remodeling as he will easily be able to pull the wool over your eyes and give you a poor product. He was constantly arriving late and did not come when he said he would claiming his truck broke down but in the 7 months this project took his truck “broke down” three times. Every turn of this project was filled with delays, errors,and poor excuses from day one. Greg had a crew come out and remove a tree where the project was to occur. It was left a big mess with no regards for my neighbors. The limbs and trunk parts laid around for weeks before they moved on to the next phase of the project. The installed concrete slab looks good except for the two of the edges where the concrete forms for the slab installed were not very well secured and several slipped out causing uneven edges around the perimeter. When they were complete they did not build a raised base for my heat pump as I requested and the back corner was being pulled up by its attached copper lines. I ended up taking care of that myself as it needed to happen immediately. He thought it was just fine even though you could physically the back corner lifted up. When installing the concrete slab for the garage four things happened. -The neighbors garage did not have any footings so we had to cut a 6 inch x 6 inch hole under the length their slab to so the two walls would move in unison. This was expected but…….Greg tried to charged me $1500.00 for that work. It only took a couple hours of work and $30 worth of concrete. He said because of the weather he has to pay for an extra day for the skid loader he had out there and did not charge me for the mud removal.Funny thing is they scheduled the inspector that morning and did not even have the footings dug. I had to contact them to move the footing inspection back because the footings had not been dug yet and could have been done before rain if his planning wasn't so bad. This should have clued me in but it was early and hoped it was just a slip up. It is not okay to charge your customer because you do not own a tool. If you have to rent/buy a tool to get the job done it is not the customers cost. -They did not place the anchors high enough in the slab to go through the sole plate on the walls and half of them were leaning this way and that. This is not a big deal because you can install more after the fact but it is more evidence of poor craftsmanship. Plus I have permanent claw marks in the concrete that can be seen from the inside where someone dug into the concrete while making their poor attempt at setting the anchors. -The gas line they put in (gas contractor gave them the line to put in) was not placed a point far enough from the edge of the garage for the riser to be 100% inside of the sole plate of the wall. Another lapse in attention to detail. There were two framers plus their helpers that did the stick work. -They popped holes into my brand new slab to steady the walls as he put them up. Very big no no. I did not notice until later when the service door was installed that the walls were barely plumb within national guidelines for structural load bearing walls. This has made the service door extremely hard to plumb and will never be right. -The eaves they installed were not even close to where they needed to be in height and not level and had to be completely ripped off and were replaced by the second framer who appears to be getting very tired of having to clean up behind the first guy’s mistakes. One eave was level but install about 2 inches to low to meet up with my neighbors attached eave. Should have been obvious. After requesting they get fixed Greg told me the flashing will cover it up. I had to go beyond asking and was forced to tell Greg these were getting replaced. The second framer and his helpers had a great attitude and I am happy with his work. The only thing they did wrong was because of Greg not listening on how I wanted the gate to my fence built and some cosmetic errors that needed to be pointed out to them. Greg told him what I wanted was a section of fence that can be lifted out and not a swinging gate that can be lifted off. I even gave him examples of the lift off hinges that I wanted used in an Email. To make things simpler we agreed on a third option as this was one of the last things to go in and I was done with Heinen Contracting. Had the second framer/sider not made a couple craftsmanship errors on the siding and shingling I would have been extremely happy with his work. My garage is attached to my neighbors and the errors happened at the transition. They were caused by unnoticed framing mistakes that framer 1 made. Framer 2 repaired the errors but did not do it on his own as it had to be pointed out to him but they were easy fixes. The roof install was a nightmare. -I know I mentioned shingles but this is a flat roof with shingles around the perimeter. The rubber membrane was installed by someone who I don’t think has done it before. Greg said he was a professional roofer and maybe he can nail down some shingles but rubber not so much. After the roofer was out there I called Greg about issues with the roof bubbling up and asked him when the roofer was back out I wanted to be there because it needed to be fixed. Greg said the roofer was done andit was just gassing off. -Membranes when adhered properly do not “gas off” causing blisters like he suggests. These bubbles will eventually become a cause for concern over the years for leaks and premature failure of the membrane. I gave up trying to get him to fix it. The membrane was not installed by manufacturer directions and it was poorly adhered to the substrate. There is supposed to be a special tape that is used to seal the seams together. -Now to Greg’s credit there were both the seam tape that goes in between the edges and the seam tape that goes over the top of seams and fixtures was available for the roofer to use.  The roofer did not use either.   <p></p> Where Greg failed was arguing with me about doing it properly until I told him that the city inspector was going to reject the roof if it was not properly installed and all of a sudden he was playing ball. Suddenly the roofer was not done like he previously said and will be out to fix the seams. -There was a huge ponding problem with the roof. Greg said the ponding was normal and indicated he was not going to fix it. It is an industry standard that when water does not evaporate within 48 hours is not an okay amount of ponding on a roof. I had a 19 foot by 3 foot pool on my roof that did shrink a little but did not evaporate within the 48 hour standard and was going strong after 72 hours. I was forced to re-slope that area myself at a time when it would be easy enough and now the pond is gone. Guess what...no bubbles, perfect seams, and it passed inspection. No contractor likes this so I don’t suggest it but it saved me time, money, and effort having to deal with Greg or finding another contractor to do the work and then billing Greg. So Greg used this as an excuse for something

unknown

<p>My new garage/shed was finished approximately one year after I signed the contract with Heinen.  He did a good job of designing the garage (in his head; no drawings) in a way that was economical and works.  Greg Heinen is very personable and generally easy to talk to.  We talked over options and worked through questions and decided on a final design.  My dissatisfaction mostly arises from the length of time it took to finish the work and the difficulty I had in knowing what was going on with the construction schedule. </p> <p>Problems started (at least in part) due to heavy rains in June of 2014, which seemed to get everything delayed for months.  I also now (in hindsight) think that because Greg is a relatively small general contractor who works with a number of subcontractors, the delays were due to the availability of many of his subs.  The original start date was to be June of 2014, then pushed back to late July, and then he couldn't give me a date and stopped communicating with me. A crew finally came to demolish the existing garage in late September.  The general pattern was that Greg would tell me when crews would be out, more often than not the crew would not show up on that day, and I would get a series of promised start dates that also did not happen.  Construction continued sporadically in this manner through October and November, and in December I had a garage that was usable (although without electricity except via extension cord).  This spring they finished up with a new driveway (the first was incorrectly put in) and the electrical hook-up.  Some of what I wanted for the garage/shed did not occur and I had to decide whether it was more important to get the garage done or to get it done in accordance with the contract.  Because it was so late in the year, I generally decided on getting things done.  The item that I am most unhappy with is the eave depth. They were supposed to be 18" but wound up being only 12".  Since the roof trusses. were brought onsite pre-constructed, I didn't realize the depth was off until they and the walls were up  so I could measure.  By that time it was late October or November and I needed a garage for the winter.</p> <p>In general, my experience with the subs is that a few of them showed up when they were supposed to and worked full days, but more of them seemed to show up about 10 a.m. and leave about 3 p.m.  One crew of two showed up at 10 and I saw one of the guys standing around for two hours.  He said they had thought nails would be there, but the right kind of nails weren't there, so the other guy had to get them.  So, it took this guy 2 hours to get the nails (!) and then they left at 3.  On the other hand, the crews that did the framing and put in the second driveway did an excellent job, and the garage and shed function well.  I wonder if part of the problem is that Greg trusts his subs and some of them take advantage of that. Greg seldom came out to see how things were going and seemed to just ask the subs what was going on and simply take their word for it.</p> <p>In summary, I got the garage and shed we discussed (with the exception of a few items which Greg readily removed from the final cost) and am happy with how it works.  The process of getting the garage, however, is not one I'd like to go through again.</p> <br />

See above <br />

unknown

The project started at the end of last summer.  I met with Heinen Contracting as well as several other contractors, as this was a really bid deal for us.  Right from the start, Greg gave us some really good advice, and we actually ended up changing the scope of work based on his direction.  We had been planning this garage addition for a long time, but Greg's design was much better than what we originally wanted to do.  It created a better flow from the garage to the house, and saved us a lot of money on materials and labor.  He really knew what he was doing with the permitting, we pulled the permit ourselves, as homeowners, but we wouldn't have been able to do it without all his assistance. His office staff was helpful and always available when we needed advice.  They started in the fall and were really good about keeping the job site clean, even after that first early snow when the mud got really bad.  All of the crew were very professional and respectful of our space and privacy.  The workmanship was top notch.  They continued through the winter, with a lull over the holidays, as we requested.  They got right back to work every day the weather would allow and we were all signed off and ready to use our new garage and additional space early this spring.  <br /> We loved working with Greg. He was very responsive, very professional and most of all he has GREAT ideas and is very creative.  He really knows his industry and it shows in the outcome.  I will definitely call him again when we are ready to tackle another big project. <br />

I worked with Greg a few years ago for a garage so he was the first choice I had with this new project. I did take the time to get a couple other bids, but even though Greg's was not the lowest, it was clear that he knew the most about what I wanted done.  Not only that, he provided the best solutions for a couple of tricky points, and no other contractor was able to do this with experience to back it up.   <br /> Greg provided plans, got all the necessary permits into place quickly, and commenced work as soon as road restrictions were lifted. All his subcontractors were professional and kept the job site clean. The work was done on schedule and went really well. A couple of hiccups occurred, and Greg was right there to deal with it right away and fix the things that needed fixing.  He communicated with me the whole time, sending me progress pictures, as this is a rental property and I am not usually there to see what is going on.   <br /> Overall I am very pleased with the finished garage.  I know from past experience with Greg that he sticks to his warranty and will be around if I have any issues in the future, even though I do not anticipate any.   <br />

Our garage build took 1 year to complete. When we signed the contract with Greg Heinen on 9/3/13 and paid 50% down, it stated that the work would start on 9/15/13 and would be substantially completed by 10/31/13. They did not get the permit pulled in advance so that they could start on 9/15/13 and so we waited until the end of October for the work to start! Concrete was poured during the winter and most of it had to be redone or replaced. We are still dealing with defects in the garage build.  <br /> Greg Heinen started to build our neighbor's garage before finishing ours after we suggested they get a bid from him. We assumed he might give both of us a credit for getting two jobs in one location.  The garage floor was not sloped toward the door and so we had puddles of stagnant water throughout the winter and mold that grew all over the garage walls, our cars, bikes and tools in the garage. At that time and after persistently asking for months, Greg installed two passive vents. He had installed these for our neighbors after they saw the problems we were having with our garage.  <br /> At the beginning of the build, he started building wood stairs at the back of the garage (lower level) that were not in the original plans (see attached). We luckily caught the problem and he had to backfill the area. He wanted to charge us for his mistake. This continued throughout the entire project whenever something went wrong.  <br /> When they excavated a large portion of our backyard (our house sits up on a hill), they did not install erosion control. They were cited by the city of St. Paul and we received complaints from our neighbors. They never rectified the problem. We ended up building a retaining wall ourselves one afternoon after work to stop the erosion on the west side of our garage. Eventually we hired Greg to build the other retaining wall between our garage and the garage he had built for our neighbors (east side).  <br /> Currently, the garage floor is cracking, when it rains water pours out the side of the retaining wall (not the drain), our garage is not 3 ft from the property line as originally contracted for and as indicated by the survey, and the apron is once again crumbling. In addition to these issues, the most pressing concern is that when it rains we are unable to access our garage and there is no lighting for security due to a break in the electrical line going from the house to the garage.  The electrician has been out a few times and has just replaced the GFCI. The problem has continued to occur whenever it rains (a total of 7 times now), and resolves once it drys out. The electrician and Greg have never tried to rectify the problem.  Another electrician identified the problem after I described it to him over the phone and he came out the same day to take a look, at which time he confirmed that we need a new line from the house to the garage. Greg had claimed the problem was due to our cheap lights from Menards in the upstairs of the garage. We replaced these lights last year with a product from Home Depot because one of Greg's subs had broken one of these lights. I should add that Greg sources all of his materials from Menards. In addition, when we started the project with Greg, we specified that we were going to use the upstairs as a gym year-round and would need electrical access accordingly. We assumed that the electrical he was installing would be sufficient to power that space, but that was not the case. We waited to write a review in order to give Greg the opportunity to correct the problems.  He has not fixed them. He's a nice guy, but we think he got in over his head on this one. <br /> <br />

The construction went well.  Workers were exemplary.  It took a long time - started work in October, finished up in April with finishing touches; obviously winter intervened.  I'm very pleased with the garage.  It looks nice and meets all my requirements.   Neighbors and passersby with construction knowledge said that the garage was very well done. <br />

Owner Greg Heinen provided me with an estimate to pour a concrete floor in our addition. He arrived on time with his crew and prepared the site for concrete. The day ran a little long because of a glitch with the city inspector, so the install had to be delayed until the next day. Everything went well with the install and Greg's crew finished the slab. Nice quality work and the site was cleaned up well.

unknown

<strong></strong> <strong>TL;DR:</strong> Greg is great; he follows through, work ethic was wonderful, quality of work is perfect, and he ensures that the job a) gets done right, and b) the customer is happy. If you're an A-type, just have a little patience if he's late. Send him a text, call, or email - he'll let you know an ETA of if a reschedule is needed.  <br /> I initially contacted Greg Heinen on June 10, 2014 for the initial request to come out and bid the job. I explained a lot of what I wanted to do, mentioned what another contractor offered to which Greg said he could do all that plus more for the same price. Okay, sold. My original plan was just some landscaping and the new garage. This all started because my basement had water in it with all the rain we had last winter - several contractors told me landscaping would fix it. The costs seemed to low for a loan, but too high to pay in cash. So, I added the new garage to the project. The original quote for this was around $28,000. <br /> I gave the initial deposit within a couple weeks of meeting and was told the work would start around Aug. 1 and would only take a few weeks to be completed. Aug. 1 rolled around and the work got pushed back a week. Then it was demo day. The crew came in and did a nice quick job of demoing everything. But then there was a long delay on the next steps. A few weeks later when they came out to do the landscaping portion. By this time, I had gotten the final loan valuation back on my house and it was much higher than expected. I decided to add on a fence, patio, retaining wall, and deck railing to the project. Greg was extremely flexible with giving ideas, working it into the schedule, and providing great insight.  <br /> After the landscaping got done, the garage began to take form. For some reason, the siding that was selected initially was this absolutely horrid blue ... I called it "trailer trash blue" because it looked cheap and was just atrocious. I complained to Greg and he worked it out to get that fixed. They removed what was already put up and replaced with a color that actually matches my house. When they started building the patio and retaining wall, I didn't like the height of the wall - I mentioned (i.e. complained) to Greg and he fixed it.  <br /> After the garage was basically done, I really didn't like that one side had some fire proof sheet rock wall, and the other walls just looked boring and framed. So, I requested that the whole thing get sheet rocked. They did within a couple days. At this time, it was early October and almost everything was completed. The garage door still hadn't come in... once it did, they had to replace the door opener/motor because it wasn't working very well. <br /> When it comes to projects, I like to be pretty organized - some may even say I'm an A-type personality. With that comes high expectations on work ethic, quality of work, punctuality, and details.... lots and lots of details. If you're anything like me, take a deep breath because he's a really busy guy. He will schedule time with you and not show up; he will make plans to meet early in the morning the next day, but email at 9:30pm the night before saying he can't make it. It's just the way things are. When you do get a chance to meet face to face, he's a great listener, he understands what the needs are, he provides insight and ideas, he has a great personality (this helps alleviate almost all frustrations when the punctuality check box remains empty), and the work was honestly done really well. In the big picture, I can live with someone being perpetually late and multiple no-shows, but have a great final output. A small sacrifice to the gods of frustration. <br /> Greg is very responsive. With this project, we have had about 150 emails back and forth, about 50 text messages, a dozen phone calls, and about the same face-to-face meetings. I don't think I had an email not responded to within 48 hours ever - usually within 8-12 hours I would get a response.  <br /> Greg uses a lot of contractors, and some of those contractors have sub-contractors. The quality overall was really good, even though it wasn't all under Greg's direction. When I noticed something I didn't like or was wrong, Greg promised to fix it and followed through. My happiness with the final project seems to be important to Greg - I'm not going to complain about that at all. <br /> It's now 11/17/14 and there's only one step left and the project is officially completed. It took three months instead of three weeks, but I did add on a thousand different projects so that's more my fault then Greg's. If I have more projects I want to get done, I'd definitely call Greg to do it. <br /> <br /> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /> <br /> <strong>UPDATE: 5/12/2015</strong>: When the work was completed last fall, Greg promised to come out in the spring to check on everything. I emailed April 3rd asking him when he could come out. No response. April 20th, emailed again - he responded on April 21 and said he would come out April 24. <strong>He did not come out April 24th as promised (#1)</strong>; I emailed him April 25th, no response until May 2, saying he'll come out May 5. I responded May 2 letting him know I began working with different landscaper on items that he should have fixed. His response on May 4 was filled with excuses on what should have been fixed (including his kid doing donuts in my front yard on a Bobcat that was never fixed). I explained further on May 4th. <strong>He did not come out on May 5th as promised (#2)</strong>. He responded on May 7 with a patronizing tone, telling me I spent too much on grass seed and that he would be out on May 8. I responded May 7 telling him NOT to come out May 8, the day I had planned on 25 guests coming to the house and did not want a mess in the yard. He replied May 7 saying he would come out today, May 12. <strong>He did not show up May 12th as promised (#3)</strong>. <br /> <br /> I spent nearly $40k on a lot of work last year. Now, the garage is leaking, the garage door frame is drooping, the side door doesn't lock, and the fence was not installed with a mid-level horizontal brace and now all of the 6' vertical posts are wrapped. Over half of the plants in the new landscaping area are dead, the grass seed that was promised to fix all of the yard that was destroyed last year was later admitted in an email to be $10 worth of seed - not enough for the $800 worth of sod and grass seed I spent to fix everything this year. The professionalism of this company (i.e. Greg Heinen) is terrible. Getting a hold of Greg is a nightmare. Getting Greg to come and correct the things that shouldn't have broken in the first place is ridiculous. The owner, Greg, talks down to his customers in a condescending tone and it's unprofessional. <br /> <br /> Greg is wonderful to work with before he gets his money. Greg will promise to be available and make sure you're happy. After that, he's a totally different person. Don't give the final 25% payment until 6 months after the project is done to make sure he actually fixes everything. Greg will harass and pressure you to provide a positive review on Angie's List the day you give him his final payment after your final walk through. My suggestion is to wait until a six-month check-up can be conducted. He clearly expects his clients to wait for work, so why shouldn't he wait for payment. I will be filing a complaint with the BBB if my very few minor issues are not corrected in next 30 days.